1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to decorative dust ruffles for a bed. More particularly, the invention relates to bed dust ruffles, or valance, which may be easily and conveniently placed on a bed, and which are adjustable to any size bed,, without the need of removing the top mattress or otherwise specifically tailoring a particular sized dust ruffle to a particular bed.
2. Descriotion of the Prior Art
Heretofore, the placement of dust ruffles around three sides of a box spring, lying beneath a conventional mattress, normally required the complete removal or displacement of the top mattress from the box spring. The dust ruffles of the prior art were affixed to the perimeter of a sheet. This sheet, of a fixed length and width, had to be properly placed over the box spring. A set of dust ruffles in the prior art device was adaptable to only a mattress of a particular length and width. This is because the length and width of the sheet with the dust ruffles had to match the dimensions of the box spring. Even with a properly sized sheet, the placement of the dust ruffles around the box spring was often quite time consuming and tedious.
Other methods used included a dust ruffles skirt with an elastic top edge that is held in place by the pressing weight of the mattress. Additionally, the use of safety pins, snaps, corkscrew pins and two point Velcro type fasteners are used to position a dust ruffle or top edge around the top of the box spring or foundation. After each of these dust ruffle removals and replacements, careful tedious repositioning and fastening is necessary. Another two-part system in the prior art uses one part of a zipper along the top edge of the dust ruffle and another around the perimeter of a sized mattress pad. Such zipper systems are very expensive because they require numerous sizes to adjust to the different bed sizes and mattress thickness. Of all the aforesaid prior art devices for the fitting of dust ruffles around a bed, no prior art device offers both an easy and inexpensive method for accomplishing the same.
Representative of the prior art include the patents to Piontkowski, U.S. Pat. No. 2,763,875, issued Sept. 25, 1956; Weinberg, U.S. Pat. No. 2,619,658, issued Dec. 2, 1952; and, Hoit, U.S. Pat. No. 1,270,414, issued June 25, 1918.